pay-off

• payoff

Deverbal from pay off.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪ.ɒf/, American: IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪ.ɔːf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

pay-off (plural pay-offs)

2. A payment in full; the state of having been paid in full.

   At the current monthly payment level, it'll take 32 more months to reach pay-off.

4. A reward.

   What's the pay-off for putting up with her nonsense for ages on end?

6. A return on investment.

   How soon could we realistically expect any pay-off from loading up on shares of that company?

8. (informal) A bribe.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bribe

   The prison break never could have succeeded if it hadn't been for multiple pay-offs to various corrupt officers.

   • 1981 September, “Sex and Vice”, in Songs of the Gay Liberation Quire:

     Darlinghurst cops will get you/Clean and bright/Rich and white/See where pay-offs will get you

10. (colloquial, especially fiction) A resolution or justification of an event that has already occurred.

    Where's the pay-off for that whole segment of the plot?

    • 2013, Heide Goody, Iain Grant, How to Write a Collaborative Novel‎^[1], Pigeon Park Press, →ISBN:

      If there is a significant or surprising event in the story, it must be foreshadowed earlier on. When the event that was foreshadowed occurs, that's the payoff.

    • 2026 January 24, Richard Waters, “A displaced life”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 8:

      In a surprising pay-off, [Michael] Moritz says he has applied for citizenship of Germany, the country where so many family members were murdered.

12. (baseball) Ellipsis of payoff pitch.

    The bases are loaded, so he'd better make the pay-off count.